Wind of Truth and Shadow of Doubt
by Evawyn
Summary: A threat to all who are endowed. A kidnapped family. A sinister plot for power. Two girls may be able to stop it all. Chapter five is on the way! By the way, I stink at summarys.
1. Mistress of Shadows

Vedee Darkshadow grabbed her things and rushed out the door with her adopted sister, Eliza Breeze. Eliza had shoulder length blond hair that she parted at the side of her head and pinned up into a bun. Her dark green eyes stared out from behind large, half-rimmed glasses. She was several inches taller than Vedee, who had tan skin with dark brown hair braided to her head. Her eyes were a clear brown. Both of the girls were fourteen. As they ran down the street to catch the bus, they donned their green capes.

"Hey, Bookworm! Going to some freak school for the mentally deranged?" The boy from next door called at Eliza. He was a fat ten year old who, from the moment she saw him, knew would be trouble.

Eliza had come to live with Vedee's family five months ago, when her parents and brother had been kidnaped in France. They had been presumed dead, and Eliza went to live with her godparents, Mr. And Mrs. Darkshadow.

Eliza and Vedee ignored the boy and caught the green bus, which was, apparently, filled with children. They sat near the back, with a twelve year old looking girl and two boys that looked about fourteen. "Hi! Is it you first day at Bloor's? My names Tancred," said the blond haired boy. "This is Lysander," He pointed at the dark skinned boy with dreadlocks. "And this is Emma. Who are you?"

"I'm Eliza and this is my sister, Vedee."

"Cool!" said Emma, looking up from her sketchbook. Vedee, who was sitting next to Emma, asked what she was drawing. When Emma handed the sketchbook to her, Vedee exclaimed with surprise. A beautiful, long necked crane seemed to be alive on the paper. It was eating a fish with utmost delicacy and had blue tipped wings.

"That's incredible! You're a great artist!"

"Thanks." They chatted all the way to Bloor's.

The day went fine, except for when Vedee got lost and ended up in the Janitors Closet. During the dinner of a weak tomato soup, Dr. Bloor stood and held his hand up for silence while he made an announcement.

"We have two new endowed students with us. Vedee Darkshadow and Eliza Breeze, stand up."A candle on the teacher's table flared, casting a fierce gold light throughout the room for a brief moment. No one seamed to notice. "You will be doing your homework in the King's Room." He continued, then added, "DISPERSE!"

Eliza stood up, gathered her things, then walked over to Tancred. "Do you know where the King's room is?" she asked him.

"Sure. Just follow me." he said. Eliza and Vedee followed Tancred and Lysander up to the King's room, where they were a couple of the last ones in. Manfred, the Twins, Joshua Tilpin, Dorcas Loom, and Asa sat on one side of the round table, while Charlie, Billy Raven, Lysander, Gabriel, Tancred, and Emma sat on the other. Eliza sat next to Vedee and Billy, while Vedee sat next to Emma and, of course, Eliza. After about thirty minutes of quiet working, a pencil whizzed past Eliza's ear. Eliza saw Charlie glance at the Twins, who were gazing at the pencil without emotion. As it came around for another pass, a light waft of wind sped at the pencil like a bullet, where it stopped, trembling in midair, before zipping back towards the twins. A quiet smile played on Eliza's face as she shuffled her books around to a better position.

Everyone just sat there, staring, when Vedee let out a single giggle, her hands covering her mouth, trying to muffle the sound.

"Was that YOU?!" Manfred practically shouted, tipping his chair over as he stood up. Fire shone in his eyes and his face was contorted with rage. He had been having a bad day and he didn't want some stupid third year to be messing around when he was in control. "What's your endowment?" There was silence. "Now, Darkshadow!" He looked precariously close to hitting her.

"Fine, if I _must_." she said, sarcasm dripping from her words. Manfred glared at her. Suddenly, a large black shadow started growing on the wall. When it was bigger than Vedee, she walked cooly over to it, ignoring the goggling stares of most people in the room and stepped in. Her foot disappeared, then her arm. Once she had walked all the way into the wall, the shadow vanished, and a minute later, Vedee pushed open the door to the room and entered, humming cheerfully to herself.


	2. So, what do you do?

The rest of the period went peacefully, mostly because Manfred was stunned into not asking questions. He was fidgety and didn't talk or look at anyone. Later that night, as she lay in her creaky, hard bed, Eliza leaned over and poked Vedee, "Do you think that anyone suspects me?" she whispered.

"It's not likely." Vedee responded in the same whispered tone.

"Hey! Shut up and go to sleep, or Matron'll throttle us." Someone from across the room told them. Pulling the blankets tighter around her, Eliza turned over and tried to go to sleep.

Later, around midnight, Manfred sat up in a tall wooden chair with intricate carvings, waiting. A brown haired girl of about seventeen walked into his room, footsteps thudding in a threatening echo, her blue eyes pointed coldly at him.

"Well?" Her voice was like ice, seeping, penetrating, and freezing him down to his bones. He shivered and looked down at his feet, clad in red plaid slippers.

"She's here. I don't know how to get her alone, though. That shadow creep hangs around her too much." Manfred said, sulkily.

"TRY HARDER, THEN!" She shouted, then said in a quieter, more dangerous tone, "Get her alone, or I'll use you for our experiments, and I guarantee that you will not enjoy it." A wicked grin played upon her face. Manfred slipped farther down in his chair.

"Yes, Laramie. I'll try harder." He said softly, a slight whimper in his voice.

"You better." She said, gruffly, and in a puff of smoke and sparks, she was gone. Manfred didn't notice an ugly brown dog slip away from the partly ajar door.

Billy had gotten up to use the bathroom, when Blessed hobbled up to him, reeking like week-old eggs as always. Billy crouched down to the old dog's eye level, his white hair reflecting the tiny ray of moonlight that had found it's way in through the crack in the curtians. "Hello, Blessed. How are you?" he asked.

"Manfred have visitor. Smells like evil and bad magic. Called Laramie." The dog stated, sniffing Billy's hand. "No good." He licked the tips of Billy's fingers with his slimey tongue, then hobbled away toward the kitchens. Billy straightened up and went to the bathroom, before going back to the dorm, a troubled look on his young face.

The next morning, Eliza and Vedee ran down to breakfast, and were joined by Emma, Lysander, and Tancred.

"Hey, Lizza! Hey, Vee!" Emma called, waving her hand around in the air. Tancred started chattering about the recent change in the weather to anyone who would listen, before Lysander kindly asked him to, please, shut up.

When they had sat down at a table, Tancred said, "That thing in the King's room was really cool! What did you do?"

Vedee paused a moment, looked around to make sure the coast was clear, then said, "I'm a Shadow Bender. I can manipulate and create shadows, which basically means that I can banish light. Ticks Lizza off. I can also walk into a shadow, either previously excising of made by me, and go somewhere else." Lysander's jaw dropped. "I also have recently discovered," she went on, "that I can make a solid ball made out of shadows. It's fun to hit people with!"

"What do you guys do?" Eliza asked, gesturing to the three people that were sitting across the table. Tancred spoke up first. He had a malicious grin on his face.

"I control the Weather. I can make wind, rain, hail, sleet... stuff like that."

Eliza blinked, then looked at Lysander.

"I can call up my ancient ancestors."

Vedee smiled. "What are they like? Do they kill people?"

"Sometimes." Lysander admitted, "Though they usually appear as pairs of hands wielding spears."

Eliza looked at Emma, prompting her to talk.

"I can turn into a bird." Emma blushed. "I can actually become a fictional bird, also, like my Talroc."

"So, what do you do?" Tancred asked, looking at Eliza.


	3. Nature Speaker

"What ever you do, do not, under any circumstances, let anyone know that you know what I can do. My family was kidnaped because someone wanted my power!" She was deathly calm, but her knuckles were turning white from gripping the chair too hard.

She started again, "I am pretty powerfully gifted, but I usually don't let anyone know. I am a Nature Speaker. I can talk to and bid the wind, fire, water, light, and plants to do a lot of things." She stopped, looking with amusement at the stunned faces. "It has some drawbacks, though. Vedee can banish the light that I gather, though it's harder for her if I fight it. I can't create plants, like I can create fire, though I can talk to plants. I can't talk to fire. It's too short lived. I am better at wind."

"What about water?" Tancred interjected. "Can you make it rain, or freeze, or anything?"

"I can do rain, but I don't do temperature. I still prefer wind and plants to all of them, though. Less drawbacks. Wind has some pretty funny uses. My brother was telekinetic. I used to drive him crazy stopping his stuff from moving! It took me three years to perfect it. I ..."

Her voice cracked and she paled. Vedee put her arm around her sister and told the gapping audience, "That should hold your curiosities for quite a while, I think. Don't tell anyone about her endowment. It's dangerous."

Vedee helped Eliza up and they left the room. She took her to the bathroom, where Eliza leaned against the wall.

"They aren't dead, you know." Vedee looked at her, eyebrow raised. "My family isn't dead. They were captured by the La'tears in London for use in an experiment. The La'tears, they have this new theory about endowments. I don't know that much about it. I barely escaped their ambush."

"How do you know that?"

"Oh, Laramie was giving one of those pathetic evil speeches." Eliza grinned ruefully and looked at her watch. "We better go or we'll be late for English."

They rushed off, feeling better than they had in a long time. The day went smoothly. They had no mishaps, like Vedee being locked in a closet, or anything.

Later, in the King's room, Eliza sat down next to Charlie and Tancred.

"Hi! I'm Charlie. It's nice to meet you." He said enthusiastically. "What do you do?" He had a thick, bushy amount of dark hair and a slightly long face and he was smiling. He was about twelve, the same age as her brother.

"Nice to meet you, too." Eliza said with a small smile that pulled harder on the right side than the left.. "I can talk to Wind. You?" _Better not to tell anyone too much_, she was thinking. _I'll just stick to wind only._

"I can hear the people in photographs and paintings. I can visit them too, but it's pretty dangerous." Charlie stated, matter-of-factly with a straight face.

"Hey, you two, shut up, and do your homework, or it's detention!" Manfred barked at them.

"Actually," said Eliza, turning to face him, "I wouldn't mind detention. I would love to stay here and poke around the grounds for once! I like it here." _Not. Though the chance to investigate around here would be nice._

"Detention! You will not be permitted to go outside, either. Don't talk back to me, Miss. Know-it-all. There are consequences." He smiled coldly.

Eliza returned his smile. "Really, there should be more of a reason for detention than that!"

"You know, I wish that your brother was here. He might listen to reason, though I suppose that he is unavoidably detained at the moment." His voice was soft and dangerous.

Everyone in the room looked at Eliza, though Vedee, Tancred, Lysander, and Emma all stared in horror as she stood up and glared with venom at Manfred. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a ripping torrent of speeding wind sprang up in the room, slashing and ripping at everything in sight. Unlike Tancred's storms, though, was that the portrait of the Red King and everyone and their things on Eliza and Vedee's side of the table was left untouched.

The door flew open, and Dr. Bloor stepped in, but was immediately swept off of his feet by the raging wind from the room. It did not enter the corridor. It was confined to the room and continued to gust with the same intensity until nine o'clock, when the bell rang. The wind stopped and the cowering forms of Dr. Bloor, Manfred, Asa, and the others looked up at the halt of chaos. Tancred was staring in awe at Eliza, who picked up her books and cooly started toward the door, as if nothing had happened.


	4. Laramie La'tear

That night, Laramie visited Manfred. She walked up quietly, then yanked the sheets off of him. He bolted upright with a shout, looked around, and yelled, "Holy crap, La'tear! Don't do that!"

"The spell is still working, but we won't have much time now." Laramie La'tear's voice sounded like icicles, falling heavily in the darkness.

Manfred squinted at her. "What spell?"

"I cast a spell on that Breeze girl. She can't tell anyone too much without hurting herself." She smiled self-satisfyingly, then scowled. "Father wants her soon! You have until tomorrow evening, or we come. Dr. Bloor wouldn't like that very much, now would he? If I remember correctly, he and Father don't really like each other that well."

"All right, I'll have her for you by noon. You will come to pick her up, though? I can't leave."

"I will, but don't push your luck." With a flick of her hand and a few muttered words, she was gone in a small shower of blue sparks. Manfred sighed and tried to go back to sleep, thinking up plans for capturing Eliza.

Eliza, at the moment, was standing in the shadows outside of the room with her head wrapped in a black scarf to hide her fair hair and skin. She had only gotten there a few minutes ago, but she had heard enough. Quietly, she pushed a few tendrils of wind under her feet and walked down the passageway, keeping to the shadows and not making a sound.

Vedee woke up, looked over to Eliza's bed, and bolted upright. Eliza was gone. This normally wouldn't have been strange if not for the fact that they weren't allowed out of the dorms yet and the small note on her pillow. Vedee stood and bent to pick it up.

_**Vedee,**_

_**Sorry to worry you, but I've gone to visit my dear Aunt Margie. **_

_** I'll be back in a week or two.**_

_**Eliza**_

"But, she doesn't have an Aunt Margie..." Vedee murmured. Emma walked over to her.

"What's that?"

"A letter from Eliza. I don't think... Aha! I knew it wasn't real!"

"What?" Emma asked in confusion.

"Do you have a flashlight?" Vedee asked her as she want to Eliza's suitcase and started rummaging through it. Emma retrieved her flashlight and handed it to her.

Vedee held up the note and pointed to a dot in the bottom left hand corner. "She does that when she wrote something in lemon juice on the back." She turned the paper over and held the now turned on flashlight to it. After approximately three minuted, brown shapes started to apear. Two more minutes, and they could read it.

_**Got lemons from Cook. Laramie is here. Be on your guard.**_

"Who's Laramie?" asked Emma. Vedee switched off the flashlight.

"Her full name's Laramie La'tear. She's nasty and really annoying. Her family captured Eliza's parents and brother. No one really likes her. The whole family is a bunch of sorcerers and witches. Those who aren't are scientists."

"We have to go look for her! Tancred and Lysander will probably go, and I think Charlie and Gabriel will too, if we tell them everything." Emma exclaimed.

Vedee looked uncertain. "I don't think that we should tell too many people."

"We should go see Cook, though. She should know something!"

"All right, we'll go during breakfast."

Manfred was called down to Dr. Bloor's office early that morning. He hadn't brushed his hair or even changed out of his black pajamas. When he got there, Dr. Bloor was standing behind his desk and looking out of the window that overlooked the old castle. He turned as Manfred walked in the room and said in a gruff, commanding tone, "Eliza Breeze has disappeared."

Manfred felt his blood run cold. He was really in trouble with Laramie this time. He would have to find her, before twelve o' clock. Dr. Bloor was speaking again.

"I want you to find her. The school could get in a lot of trouble with the local authorities if she's running amok. Dismissed."

Manfred hurried out of the room and ran to change his clothes.


End file.
